EVERYTHING IS O.K. IN SNOW'S RUSSIA
Dallin, David J.
Everything Is O.K. In Snow's Russia THE PATTERN OF SOVIET POWER, by Edgar Snow. Random House. $2.75. Reviewed by David J. Dallin THE policy of any government of a great nation is composed of...
...Snow's report he was rather on the side of the Communists...
...Unfortunately, a verification of that report is no longer possible...
...Would not the author approve, applaud, and praise the contrary of what he approves today ? This is why books like Mr...
...As far as Russian policy in regard to China is concerned, the author supports the Soviet program of Chinese "democracy," meaning legal and material facilities for the Chinese Communists to equip their separate army for a decisive civil war: he supports, of course, the demand to have these armies equipped with American Lend-Lease...
...But in Mr...
...Since American public opinion is so poorly informed about Asia, Mr...
...And public opinion does really exist in Russia...
...It is not said who occupies the other positions...
...The picture of Russian policy, internal and foreign, as given by Snow is a lawyer's presentation of his case...
...WHAT he reports about a conversation on China with the late President is both interesting and strange...
...he speaks of "absurd objections" of Chiang Kai-shek to the Communist demands, and finally declares that he is already working with both, the Kuomintang and the Communist governments...
...Everything is all right...
...What would be the case, the reader asks himself, if Stalin acted the opposite way in any respect...
...The idyll is sometimes touching...
...And all the people worship Stalin...
...Reviewed by David J. Dallin THE policy of any government of a great nation is composed of hundreds of actions, more or less significant, confined to home affairs or else stretching into the field of international relations, attracting general attention or remaining almost unknown...
...Freedom of press, speech, assembly, and worship" exist, though on a Soviet model...
...Communists behave cautiously" in these lands and content themselves with less power than the real relation of forces might justify...
...And the new Soviet laws about marriage and divorce are good...
...Nobody expects objectivity and impartial judgment from a lawyer...
...He uncritically repeats the formula of a democracy introduced there by the Soviet authorities and does not even mention the terrible regime of deportations and executions...
...Snow even risks the assertion that (he Kuomintang considers possible, and therefore fears, a free election...
...Revolution is not really being fostered by Moscow—"the Kremlin is doing it with a hand heavily gloved in velvet...
...Franklin D. Roosevelt's attitude was generally known: he sought to bring the 2 Chinese parties together...
...In these neighbor states of Russia "organized peasants and organized workers" are winning all the power...
...If an author, while describing and evaluating the policy of a government, has nothing but praise, if he does not find among the multitude of the regime's actions, a single one that deserves criticism and negation, he leaves the reader with the impression of insincerity...
...This hand gloved in velvet could be chosen as the title for the book—it is the essence of the author's concepts...
...AFEW chapters of the book deal, for instance, with the Soviet policy in the neighboring countries—Rumania, Poland, Bulgaria...
...And Stalin is great, greater, the greatest...
...Snow's new one must be taken as a lawyer's memorandum in favor of a client...
...After a few weeks, trade unions embrace 00 per cent of the workers...
Vol. 9 • August 1945 • No. 32
